Urban Legends

Its easy to imagine a director driving around the city,scouting for locations,stopping by an old North Kolkata gali and being overwhelmed by the sheer drama of the place.

Its easy to imagine a director driving around the city,scouting for locations,stopping by an old North Kolkata gali and being overwhelmed by the sheer drama of the place. Its also deeply satisfying to presume that the director will try and script a beautiful scene around the place,capturing its mood with the same quiet confidence with which Satyajit Ray captured Varanasi in Aparajito. But filmmaker Onir will not give us any such pleasure. I dont want to document a nostalgia-hued city. I dont want to do the tram,Princep Ghat and North Kolkata cliché in my film. Visually,the Kolkata of my film will be a departure. My Kolkata will be more about Gariahat,Deshapriya Park and the Southern fringes of the city, says Onir who was in the city to haunt for location for his forthcoming film I Am Afia. What? A film set in Kolkata without long,winding shots of Kumartuli,Howrah Bridge and Victoria Memorial? Sacrilege,many would say.

But then Onir has every right to nurture his version of Kolkata. After all,he has a stake on the city. I was a student of Jadavpur University. I completed my education here. So yes,Kolkata has shaped me as a person in many ways, says Onir.

In I am Afia,Onir talks about the murky world of sperm donation in Kolkata. Purab Kohli plays the sperm donor while Nandita Das plays a single woman wanting to experience motherhood, says Onir. The film is a part of four short films (20-25 minutes each). The other short films are I Am Omar,I Am Abhimanyu and I Am Megha. Except I Am Megha,which is set in Kashmir,all the other films are about urban India. I have tried to talk about urban problems and urban conflicts in these films, says Onir.

The cast and crew of I Am Afia will fly down to Kolkata later this month for a lengthy shooting schedule. Im really excited about shooting in Kolkata. People have gone out of their way to help me here. Designer duo Dev and Nil have volunteered to handle the costumes. Students of SRFTI have offered assistance too. But there are a few things that have really upset me. The fact that I have to bring a camera from Mumbai to shoot the film is really disheartening. Moreover,while location hunting I was appalled by the way the hoardings have taken over the city skyline. I realised that I will not get even a single proper shot in my film because of these hoardings. This is nothing but visual pollution, says Onir.

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Urban Legends

Its easy to imagine a director driving around the city,scouting for locations,stopping by an old North Kolkata gali and being overwhelmed by the sheer drama of the place.

Its easy to imagine a director driving around the city,scouting for locations,stopping by an old North Kolkata gali and being overwhelmed by the sheer drama of the place.